Various constructions have been employed to provide a current path around insulated fittings or connections used to electrically isolate the ferrous piping of a gas distribution system to handle a current surge through the piping system caused by lighting or a faulty power line from which the current attempts to flow to ground. These current surges cause breakdown of the insulation and injury to the joints between pipes in the piping system. For example, there has been the installation of a spark gap, i.e., conductors from each side of the dielectric terminating in two electrodes with a calculated gap. A pair of electrodes have been used with a specific gap encapsulated in a plastic or metallic chamber filled with an inert gas. In both cases the conductors have to be attached to the metallic parts of the piping by brazing, welding, bolting or the like and the application of these protective devices is unusually time consuming, inconvenient and costly to attach to existing installations.
These problems are solved by an arrestor or current surge protector consisting of a tape which encapsulates a metal conductor and is attached across an insulated joint between pipes or other metal members by the use of a durable adhesive preferably of the pressure sensitive type for ready storage and application to expose the metal conductor through an air gap to the metal members for the passage of current across the joint.